"We're heading back to Placido,” Leo told them. “Meanwhile, I think Carina can rest in your quarters,” he said to Xandros.
Rest? Not likely, Carina thought with a secret grin.
Surprisingly, once Xandros carried her to their shared room on the ship, he lay down beside her and stroked her hair. That was all. Just ran his hand through the uneven strands. She fell asleep feeling safer than she'd ever felt before.
She woke up some time later with her nose almost touching his. He was sound asleep, his features relaxed. There was a vulnerability in his face that made her heart clench. Stars, she loved him. He'd been willing to die for her, to sacrifice his life for a prophecy he didn't believe. He'd endured the torture of the Brotherhood to keep her safe, to fulfill her destiny, putting aside his own needs.
Throughout the whole mess, she'd fought her fate, angry that words spoken by a dead Dormrelian could decide her future. Yet her mate had never questioned it. Oh, he talked a good talk, but his actions spoke louder. In the long run, Xandros put the universe before himself and freedom above profit.
He hadn't lived up to his reckless reputation. Her bad boy was a hero and didn't even know it.
She considered how things had changed. At sixteen, she'd had a crush on him, his cavalier behavior a magnet to her more dangerous side. At nineteen, she'd longed for him to sweep in and stop the pain of grief and loss. And when he didn't, she'd hated him as much as she'd desired him.
Now she realized her mate was complex in ways she'd never known. She reached up and brushed a strand of his hair away from his face. He sighed in his sleep. The sound spurred her to wake him up.
She squirmed down until she reached her goal. Sometime during the night, he'd removed his pants and only wore briefs and a T-shirt. His underwear posed no problem. She pulled them down slowly and took his semihard cock into her mouth. That was all it took. She loved the way his cock instantly responded, filling her mouth with its length. He groaned, and he groped to find her head and thread his fingers through her hair.
His jerked his hips and thrust his length deeper down her throat. She slid her tongue over the smooth skin and sucked harder. With a low growl, he yanked her head away and hauled her up to his waiting lips.
He devoured her, divesting her of her clothes so fast she barely had time to breathe. He pinned her to the bed, his dick pressed against her thigh, his hands banded around her wrists. A dark, foreboding expression tightened the features on his face. “Sneaking up on me, Rina the assassin?” he quipped.
In a quick move, she flipped him onto his back. “You're not complaining, are you?” she murmured and rubbed her sensitive pussy over his thigh. “I haven't forgotten."
Xandros raised his eyebrows. “Forgotten?"
She squeezed his biceps with her fingers. “I said I'd make you pay, remember?"
His grin made her heart flip. “Ah, yes. And I wondered what a submissive would come up with."
She leaned down and whispered in his ear. “An assignment I had once possessed a ship like this. There were ‘perks’ included in its design. I wonder—” She reached for the small, almost hidden button on the headboard.
Xandros's smile faded. “What are you—"
Carina didn't give him time to finish. She pressed the buttons—the console blessedly the same as the one on that financier's ship—and before Xandros could say any more, his hands and feet were restrained.
He yanked on the cuffs. “What are you doing?” Even though he glared at her, his cock was harder, pressed against her thigh like a bar of iron.
"Exacting my revenge,” she said smoothly. Carina was a natural submissive, but having the man she loved helpless to her torment was a thrill. Her heart pounded, knowing that she'd pay dearly for this.
When she dipped down and sucked his cock, he groaned and thrust into her mouth. She teased him, licked him, played with him. He strained toward her, his face tightened, and every muscle clenched.
She explored his body to her heart's content, her tongue seeking those places that made his cock jump. When she slid her mouth over one of his nipples, he gasped and flexed his hands. When she left a trail of heat along the seam of his hip, tracing the outline of the bird on his inner thigh, he groaned. But when she licked the rim of his ass, knowing she loved it when he did the same to her and wanting to explore his reaction, he jerked as if electricity was shot through him.
"Carina,” he gasped and pulled on the restraints.
When she added her teeth, nipping and biting the firm flesh around his anus, he growled, a sound that sent energy straight to her pussy. Her nose was buried in his balls, and her tongue rimmed his tight hole.
A sound of agony tore from him, and she stopped her torture. Splayed out on the bed for her, never once telling her to stop which might have worked—he was her Master—but he allowed her this as her due.
She loomed over him and teased the surface of his chest with her nipples. Her gaze locked with his. He panted, short, hot breaths that warmed her face. Heat licked along her veins at the dangerous expression in his dark eyes. “Master,” she murmured.
He held her gaze. Even restrained, he took charge, his dominance showing through. “Take me inside you, machinka. I want to feel your cunt like a fist around my dick."
She captured his cock inside her and slid down, the sensation so amazing, she immediately felt the rush of her orgasm start to wash over her.
"Stop!” Xandros's command made her freeze. She whimpered, realizing that Xandros could be trussed up like a pig and still make her do as he wished. He was her Master, her marked mate. She belonged to him.
"Please, Master,” she begged. “Let me come."
His gaze coursed over her body hungrily. “Stars! I want to come all over you. I want to fill every single place in you. You're mine.” His hips thrust upward, quickening while he spoke. She groaned, trying to hold back her pleasure. His voice, his words, made it difficult. “You feel so hot, so good. Do you want to come? Do you?"
She leaned back, impaled on his cock, her climax beating at her resistance. “Yes! Yes!” she screamed.
"Then release me and I'll let you come."
She fumbled for the buttons, her release imminent but his permission desperately needed. The minute the restraints dropped away, his hands were everywhere. He jerked her down, his mouth hot and demanding. He attacked her left nipple and sent electricity shooting through her nerves. His mouth demanded her response, and she gave it.
"Xandros,” she cried out.
He tore his mouth away from her breast and threaded his fingers in her hair. “You know what to call me,” he said, his voice gritty and hard.
"Master. Please, Master."
"Come all over me, machinka. Ride me and come. Make me come.” The order was sharp and intense.
Frantic, she took him deeper, harder, and he clenched his fingers around her hips as he surged up to claim her. She bent down, changing the angle, and pressed her mouth to his. He tightened his hand still in her hair and thrust his tongue inside.
Her release washed over her like a tsunami, taking everything with it—her anger, her fear, her past—and crashing it against the wall of her need. Again, he drove her higher just as she began to come down from her first climax. His hands stoked the fire again, sending her spinning into another rolling convulsion.
She tore her mouth from his. “Please, Master. Come inside me. Please,” she begged.
"I will, my little submissive. But I want to feel you come again and again.” He flipped her onto her back and pinned her to the mattress.
Embedded deep within, he thrust once more, and she shattered, her pussy squeezing him. He growled, a low hum that made her insides shake. She almost cried with frustration as he slowed his pace. Her hips rose instinctively, wanting, demanding.
When his hand connected with her ass, she gasped. Hard and fast, he spanked her twice for every thrust of his dick. She squirmed and thrashed, her skin on fire, her pussy reaching for another pinnacle. The heat and pain of his strikes only sent her pulse higher, and she panted with desire.
"Come for me, again. Again."
She screamed, her muscles clenched, and her hands fisted. Her orgasm swept through her, every shred of her heart focused on him, on his connection with her. The smacks to her ass increased in speed and force, and she shuddered violently beneath him.
"Master,” she shouted, and he responded by plunging deeper, harder, faster. She thought she couldn't have another orgasm, that her heart would explode in her chest if she did. But his frantic thrusts sent her reeling into another release, this one even stronger and sharper than the last. Her vision went black around the edges.
He spurted his seed, heat filling her, hot jets slamming into her sensitive walls. Her climax electrified her spine, her breasts, her skin, everything. Her keening cry combined with his hoarse shout, and she wondered if she could die from pleasure.
Tremors shuddered through her, the aftermath as intense as the actual orgasms. She couldn't stop shaking. Xandros didn't collapse on top of her but continued to thrust his spent cock inside her, pleasure suffusing his face as he rode out her remaining convulsions.
He stroked her with his hands, keeping her connected to him, refusing to break away from her. The mark on her arm burned, throbbing with a pain-pleasure that stripped away any pretense. He belonged to her, and she belonged to him. There was no escape from it.
He kissed her, a gentle brush of his lips over hers. “I love you, Carina Tao. You might make me pay for deceiving you, for sacrificing my life for yours, but I'd rather have your punishment for the rest of my life than be separated from you."
She clasped his face in her hands. “I
am
going to make you pay. I love you, Xandros Jasper. If you had died, what would have happened to me?"
He held her gaze. “I fully intended on giving up my life for you, but Sindar left another prediction, one that told me it would take both of us to deliver the message. So instead of fighting the Brotherhood, I let them take me, knowing you would come and we would face them together."
"Shaun expected you to be dead."
Xandros nodded. “He agreed to come back to make sure Princess Sera and Leo were safe.” He nuzzled her neck. “But I lived. For you. Because of you. I owe you everything, machinka. So hate me, hit me, yell at me, but I'll never leave you. Never."
"Oh, the payment I have in mind is nothing violent,” she said through a tight throat. “I'm tired of hating, Xandros. I want to be your submissive. The traditional way."
His eyes widened. “Really? Are you sure?"
She nodded. “I want it."
"Then, you'll have it.” His lips pressed to hers. Then he whispered, “The ceremony, the blood, all of it. Yours."
She wrapped her arms around his neck, still intimately connected to him. The future was still uncertain, but she was going to stay with Xandros. Forever.
"You're sure you won't come back to Placido with us?” Leo slung a pack over his shoulder and gave them one last glance.
Xandros shook his head. “We always intended to disappear.” He still had a hard time believing Carina had gone through with the collaring ceremony, that she belonged to him as his submissive, not just his marked mate.
"Too many people know I'm Rina the assassin,” Carina said. “We can do more out there than settled on one planet."
Leo placed his hands on Carina's shoulders. “You'll come visit."
She grinned. “Absolutely. And you'll get visits from Teran Five spooks because of it. It's not just the Brotherhood that's corrupt and evil."
Xandros stared at his mate. Even though they'd talked about breaking the hold the Terran Interstellar Force had over the various systems, he hadn't thought she'd really commit to going after them. But he'd been fighting them ever since they'd released him. He wasn't going to stop now.
Besides, the message Carina unleashed was spread all over the galaxies. She and Xandros were going to be hunted by those foolish enough to believe they could be used. But they weren't going to be out in the open.
Sindar's Hope
was a brand-new ship with several bells and whistles, courtesy of Leo. Princess Sera had been tied up in meetings all week, so they hadn't seen her. But she sent her well wishes to them through Leo, who had come to the ship to make adjustments.
As Leo ducked into the docked shuttle, he glanced back at them. “In a way, I envy you."
Carina shook her head. “Bullshit. You always wanted roots. Xandros and I? We just wanted each other. We'll see you soon. Never fear."
Leo left them, and Xandros caught Carina in his arms. “I hope you don't regret this."
"What? Leaving?” She frowned. “Did you want to stay?"
He shook his head. No. Their destiny had never been on Placido or Nylar. He'd been at home in space, and protecting Carina was his first thought. “No. I want to be with you."
"Where do you think Shaun is?” she asked.
"He's gone after Challah, so he could be anywhere.” he answered immediately. “I'm not sure what his relationship is to Finn and Aron, but they went with him."
Carina raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Do you think there's more going on with them than just colleagues?"
"The prophecy said four.” He held her gaze as the realization dawned on her. “Shaun was never going to fit in a conventional relationship."
"Like us."
He chuckled. “No, we're not conventional either."
"I don't think there are many marked mates out there who were marked so they could be tracked,” she said drily.
He tightened his hold. “I marked you because you are my destiny. So I could be with you."
She smiled. “To protect me?"
He snorted. “You don't need me for that. You're dangerous yourself.” He kissed her gently. “I like danger."
"So you marked me because you like danger?” Her eyes were bright and filled with warmth.
He cupped her face with his hands. “Whatever happens to you, happens to me, machinka. We will see it through together, whatever life throws our way."